HPV Country Profile

108

cases in 2018

56

deaths in 2018

The HPV vaccine is currently included in the UAE’s national immunization program.

Description

HPV

General Information

Human Papillomavirus

Burden of HPV infection

In UAE, about 2.3% of women in the general population are estimated to have HPV type 16 or 18 at a given time, which causes approximately 72.4% of invasive cervical cancers in the country.1 A 2018 study found that the most common strains of HPV were HPV types 16, 31 and 18.4 Another study from 2014 showed that 10% of patients tested had HPV.5

Burden of cervical cancer:
Cervical cancer, caused by HPV, is the seventh leading cause of cancer deaths in women in UAE, causing at least 56 deaths annually among the population of 1.9 million women aged 15 years and older who are at risk for the disease.1,2 Between 2012 and 2018, the number of deaths every year due to cervical cancer doubled (28 in 2012 to 56 in 2018), and if decisive action is not taken at the national level, annual deaths due to the disease will more than quadruple by 2040, reaching 246 deaths per year.3 In UAE, at least 108 women are newly diagnosed with cervical cancer each year.

6.4 per 100,000 women in UAE contract cervical cancer annually and 4.4 per 100,000 women die due to the disease each year in UAE. Among countries in the MENA region (as defined by UNAIDS), the UAE’s death and incidence rates due to cervical cancer are a bit higher than average. For example, Somalia and Morocco have the highest incidence and mortality rates, with 24.0 and 17.2 women per 100,000 being newly diagnosed with cervical cancer annually and at least 21.9 and 12.6 women per 100,000 dying due to cervical cancer per year, respectively. Whereas Iran, Iraq and Yemen have the lowest (around 2 per 100,000 women are diagnosed per year and about 1 per 100,000 die because of cervical cancer annually).2

Elbarazi, Iffat, et al. “A Content Analysis of Arabic and English Newspapers before, during, and after the Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Campaign in the United Arab Emirates.” Frontiers in Public Health, vol. 4, 2016, doi:10.3389/fpubh.2016.00176.

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